Exam 1 Flashcards
Social psychology
The scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another
3 parts to Social Psychology
-Social Thinking
-Social Influence
-Social Relations
Social Thinking
We Construct Our Social
Reality
-People tend to attribute behavior to a
cause.
Social Influence
Shapes Our Behavior
-Social situations have a powerful effect on
our behavior.
Ex: Nazi influence
- Personal Attitudes and Dispositions Also
Shape Behavior
Social Relations
Social Behavior Is Biologically Rooted
- Nature/Nurture
Social neuroscience
Explores the neural bases of social and emotional processes ad behaviors
Hindsight bias
the tendency to exaggerate one’s ability to have foreseen how something turned out.
Correlational research
the study of the naturally occurring relationships among variables—asking whether two or more factors are naturally associated.
Independent/ dependent variable
-Variable that is changed
-Variable affected by change
-Amount of water/ height of plant
Experimental research
studies that seek clues to cause–effect relationships by manipulating one or more factors (independent variables) while controlling others (holding them constant).
Common error
when two factors go together, it is tempting to conclude that one causes the other; but it may be the other way around.
Mundane realism
the experiment is superficially similar to
everyday situations.
Theory
an integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed events.
-Good theories effectively summarize many observations and make clear predictions
that can be used.
Experimental realism
the experiment absorbs and involves
its participants.
Deception
when, in research, participants are misinformed or misled about the study’s methods and purposes.
Demand characteristics
the cues in an experiment that tell
the participant what behavior is expected.
Informed consent
research participants must be told enough
to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate.
Debriefing
a full post experimental explanation of the study to participants.
Spotlight Effect
The belief that others are paying more attention to ones appearance and behavior than they really are
Illusion of Transparency
The illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily ready by others
Self-concept
what we know and believe about ourselves
Self-schemas
beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information
Social comparison
evaluations of one’s opinions and abilities by comparing oneself with others
Looking-glass self
our use of how we think or imagine others perceive us as a mirror for perceiving ourselves.
-When people think well of us, we think well of ourselves.
Individualism
the concept of giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications.
Independent self
construing one’s identity as an autonomous self—as a unique individual with particular abilities, traits, values, and dreams.
collectivism
giving priority to the
goals of one’s group and defining
one’s identity accordingly.
Self-esteem
a person’s overall self-evaluation or sense
of self-worth.
Terror management theory
proposes that
people exhibit self-protective emotional and
cognitive responses when confronted with
reminders of their mortality.
Longitudinal studies
studying the
same people over an extended period
of time—found people who had low
self-esteem as teens were more likely
to later be depressed.
Self-efficacy
a sense that one is competent and
effective—how competent we feel on a task.
Self-serving bias
the tendency to perceive oneself favorably.
Self-serving attributions
a form of self-serving bias; the tendency to attribute positive outcomes to oneself and negative outcomes to other factors.
Defensive pessimism
the adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one’s anxiety to motivate effective action.
-If i study for this exam, I will do well
False consensus effect
overestimating how much people think or act as we do
False uniqueness effect
the tendency to underestimate the
commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or
successful behaviors.
Self-handicapping
protecting one’s self-image with
behaviors that create a handy excuse for later failure.
Self-presentation
expressing oneself and behaving in
ways designed to create a favorable impression.
Self-monitoring
being attuned to the way one
presents oneself in social situations and adjusting
performance for the desired impression.
System One Brain System
automatic processing: the intuitive, automatic, unconscious, and fast way of thinking- “gut feeling”
System Two Brain System
controlled processing: the deliberate, controlled, conscious, and slower way of thinking.
Priming
activating particular associations in memory.
Embodied cognition
mutual influence of bodily sensations on cognitive preferences and social judgments.
Automatic processing
“implicit” thinking that is effortless, habitual, and without awareness; roughly corresponds to “intuition”—also known as System 1.
Controlled processing
“explicit” thinking that is deliberate,
reflective, and conscious—also known as System 2.
Overconfidence phenomenon
the tendency to be more confident than correct—to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs.
Confirmation bias
a tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions.
-System one
Heuristic
a thinking strategy that enables quick, efficient judgments
-system 1
Representativeness heuristic
the tendency to presume,
sometimes despite contrary odds, that someone or something belongs to a particular group if resembling
-tall person plays basketball
Availability heuristic
Quick judgments of likelihood of events (how
available in memory).
Belief perseverance
maintaining a belief despite new information that firmly contradicts it.
Misinformation effect
incorporating “misinformation”
into one’s memory of an event and receiving
misleading information about it.
-car crash video
Attribution theory
the theory of how people explain others’ behavior
Dispositional attribution
attributing behavior to the person’s dispositions and traits.
-Frank hit Joe…Frank is an aggressive person
Situational attribution
attributing behavior to the environment.
Misattribution
mistakenly attributing a
behavior to the wrong source.
Spontaneous trait inference
an effortless, automatic inference of a trait after exposure to someone’s behavior.
-First time meeting someone they shake your hand… you infer they are friendly
Fundamental attribution error
the tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences upon others’ behavior.
-we may infer that people fall because they’re clumsy rather than because they were tripped
Self-fulfilling prophecy
a belief that leads to its own
fulfillment.
Behavioral confirmation
a type of self-fulfilling prophecy whereby people’s social expectations lead them to behave in ways that cause others to confirm their expectations.
Theory
an integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed events.
-Good theories effectively summarize many observations and make clear predictions
that can be used.
Attitude
feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to
respond favorably or unfavorably to objects, people, and events.
Affect (ABC)
feelings
-I like puppies
Behavior tendency (ABC)
how often we do something
-I pet puppies every time I see them
Cognition (ABC)
thoughts/beliefs
-they are so fluffy and cute
Random sample
Way if selecting participants to be in your study
Random Assessment
A way of sorting the sample participates into controlled and experimental groups
Preventing Hindsight Bias
-Consider alternative outcomes
-Make your decision based on the facts, not what you think
-Think about the outcome
Narcissists characteristics
-high self of stem
-believe they are superior to others
-Don’t handle criticism well
